The sister of George Floyd, the Minnesota man who died in police custody after a police officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes, said that the four officers involved in the incident should “be charged with murder,” in an interview on Wednesday.
Floyd died Monday evening after an officer kneeled with his knee on Floyd’s throat while he was on the ground, according to video of the incident. The officers had been responding to a “forgery in progress,” and claimed that Floyd had resisted when placed under arrest. All four officers involved in the incident were later fired, according to CBS Minnesota.
"I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that's exactly what they did,'' Bridgett Floyd told NBC’s “Today” show. "They murdered my brother. He was crying for help. I don't need them to be suspended and able to work in another state or another county. Their license should be taken away, their jobs should be taken away, and they should be put in jail for murder."
She said she hasn’t seen the video of the incident, which was widely shared online and led to protests on Tuesday.
"Me and my family are taking this very, very hard,'' she said. "It's very heartbreaking. It's very disturbing to our peace. We're just doing the best that we can and making sure that we do the right thing, do what he would want us to do."
The family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, told “Today” that the police in Minneapolis “would’ve gave a false narrative and they would’ve swept it under the rug,” if not for the video.
"How many more of these senseless, excessive-force killings by the people who are supposed to protect us can we take in black America and all of America?" he said.